SNIPE-SHOOTING. 207 



no doubt, collect in such places, but will rise in 

 wisps and not afford pleasant sport in consequence. 

 Where Snipe rise and lie best is in the large wet 

 green fields, in which the water, though splashing 

 nearly every step, rarely reaches the ankle. The 

 reason that country fellows who shoot Snipe excel 

 others even far better shots than perhaps they are, 

 is because they know the district so well, though of 

 vast extent. A stranger would beat up and down 

 a field, perchance, and consider that he had not pro- 

 perly tried it till he had walked it all out. Not so 

 with these home-bred trampers, who know every 

 soft likely place, with its tiny stream or patch of 

 rushes ; they make straight from one such spot to 

 a similar one further on, and so through the day, 

 picking up their game here and there. Every field 

 or bog has one favourite haunt or corner of its own 

 that Snipe frequent, though may be by but a solitary 

 bird. 



This fact these fellows know well, and make for 

 it at once, whilst an amateur would be, as he 

 imagined, systematically trudging the whole extent 

 before him. 



Snipe do not visit streams and springs to drink, 

 but rather to wash the cloyed earth off their feet 

 and bills after feeding the same with Cock. Frost 

 is another matter, as then the edge of moving water 

 is unfrozen and food may be derived therefrom. If 

 a sand-covered worm be given to a Cock or Snipe 

 the bird will take it down, appearing to squeeze it 

 into a pulp as it is swallowed. The sand or grit 

 will show on either side of the mouth in this 

 process, as it is separated from the food and forced 



